Gender Differences in Gifted Elementary Students’ Decision-making About Renewable Energy: Social Relationships, Values, and Authority

Younkyeong Nam; Jina Yoon; Jeanna Wieselmann

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Conference: 2020 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access
Location: Virtual On line
Publication Date: June 22, 2020
Start Date: June 22, 2020
End Date: June 26, 2021
Conference Session: Pre-college Engineering Education Division Technical Session 2
Tagged Division: Pre-College Engineering Education
Tagged Topic: Diversity
Page Count: 24
DOI: 10.18260/1-2--34701
Permanent URL: https://peer.asee.org/34701
Download Count: 385

Paper Authors

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Younkyeong Nam Pusan National University

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Dr. Younkyeong Nam is an Associate Professor at Pusan National University in Busan, South Korea. Her research focuses on science and engineering integration in secondary science classrooms and environmental education in STEM. Dr. Younkyeong Nam is interested in designing engineering design-based science instruction that is more suitable for the educational context of South Korea. She is also interested in developing frameworks for designing and assessing STEM lessons to support K-12 science teachers.

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Jina Yoon Pusan National University orcid.org/0000-0002-4408-1100

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Jeanna Wieselmann Southern Methodist University orcid.org/0000-0003-1004-1191

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Dr. Jeanna R. Wieselmann is a Research Assistant Professor at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, TX. Her research focuses on gender equity in STEM and maintaining elementary girls' interest in STEM through both in-school and out-of-school experiences. Dr. Wieselmann's research has explored student participation patterns in small group STEM activities. She is interested in STEM schools, integrated STEM curriculum development, and teacher professional development to support gender-equitable teaching practices.

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Abstract

Socio-scientific issue (SSI) debate engages students in negotiating diverse ideas and formulating positions using life experiences, ethical values, and scientific evidence in order to reach a consensus and make decisions. This study examines how scientific evidence, social relationship, value and authority affect elementary science gifted students argumentative practice in two ways: social negotiation and epistemic understanding of arguments. Twenty elementary science gifted students participated in four steps of Jigsaw group discussion processes while they make decision about renewable energy; 1) single gender group (boys or girls) discussion before information given, 2) single gender group discussion after information given, 3) mixed gender group discussion (boys and girls) as a format of expert group discussion, and 4) single gender group(original group) discussion. Group discussions were videotaped and transcribed as a main data source. Students’ decision making process were analyzed by an analytic framework adapted from Toulmin’s (1958) model of argument structure, Walton’s (1996) reasoning scheme, and informal reasoning (Sadler et al., 2004). The results show that on average, the number of girl groups' utterance is 50% less than boy groups' and the same pattern is appeared in the mixed group discussions. In terms of social negotiation pattern, boy's group discussion include more 'challenging' and 'preventing' type of utterances than girl's group discussion. In the mixed group setting, girls used more 'challenging' and 'preventing' type of utterance than girls-only group. In addition, girl groups' decision making processes are more affected by social relationship, values, and authority than scientific evidence while boy’s group decisions are more affected by scientific evidence and value than social relationship and authority. This study implies that in decision making process in socio-scientific issues, social relationship and authority are critical issue along with gender. This study also illustrates that incorporating jigsaw group discussion using both single and mixed gender group could improve students’ decision making ability by considering gender difference in social interaction patterns.

Citation
Format

Nam, Y., & Yoon, J., & Wieselmann, J. (2020, June), Gender Differences in Gifted Elementary Students’ Decision-making About Renewable Energy: Social Relationships, Values, and Authority Paper presented at 2020 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access, Virtual On line . 10.18260/1-2--34701

TY  - CPAPER
AB  - Socio-scientific issue (SSI) debate engages students in negotiating diverse ideas and formulating positions using life experiences, ethical values, and scientific evidence in order to reach a consensus and make decisions. This study examines how scientific evidence, social relationship, value and authority affect elementary science gifted students argumentative practice in two ways: social negotiation and epistemic understanding of arguments. Twenty elementary science gifted students participated in four steps of Jigsaw group discussion processes while they make decision about renewable energy; 1) single gender group (boys or girls) discussion before information given, 2) single gender group discussion after information given, 3) mixed gender group discussion (boys and girls) as a format of expert group discussion, and 4) single gender group(original group) discussion. Group discussions were videotaped and transcribed as a main data source. Students’ decision making process were analyzed by an analytic framework adapted from Toulmin’s (1958) model of argument structure, Walton’s (1996) reasoning scheme, and informal reasoning (Sadler et al., 2004).  The results show that on average, the number of girl groups&#39; utterance is 50% less than boy groups&#39; and the same pattern is appeared in the mixed group discussions.  In terms of social negotiation pattern, boy&#39;s group discussion include more &#39;challenging&#39; and &#39;preventing&#39; type of utterances than girl&#39;s group discussion. In the mixed group setting, girls used more &#39;challenging&#39; and &#39;preventing&#39; type of utterance than girls-only group. In addition, girl groups&#39; decision making processes are more affected by social relationship, values, and authority than scientific evidence while boy’s group decisions are more affected by scientific evidence and value than social relationship and authority. This study implies that in decision making process in socio-scientific issues, social relationship and authority are critical issue along with gender.  This study also illustrates that incorporating jigsaw group discussion using both single and mixed gender group could improve students’ decision making ability by considering gender difference in social interaction patterns.
AU  - Younkyeong Nam
AU  - Jina Yoon
AU  - Jeanna Wieselmann
CY  - Virtual On line 
DA  - 2020/06/22
PB  - ASEE Conferences
TI  - Gender Differences in Gifted Elementary Students’ Decision-making About Renewable Energy: Social Relationships, Values, and Authority
UR  - https://peer.asee.org/34701
DO  - 10.18260/1-2--34701
ER  -